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Pressure on Berlin and Paris to surrender vetoes

PRESSURE is mounting on France and Germany to give up the veto in key policy areas to ensure the new treaty due to be agreed at next week’s Nice summit goes far enough to prepare the EU for enlargement.

Negotiators from most Union member states are calling on Paris and Berlin to drop their opposition to extending qualified majority voting (QMV) to important issues such as asylum and immigration.

“We are very anxious to make progress on QMV an important element of the Nice package,” said Sweden’s Ambassador to the EU Gunnar Lund, whose country takes over the presidency on 1 January next year. “We are very concerned that we are not reaching a sufficient level of ambition in that area.”

His remarks underline the intense pressure which French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will face in Nice to give ground.

Lund added that hopes of agreeing reforms at the summit which would enable the EU to cope with enlargement depended on the countries which claim to be most in favour of greater integration showing more flexibility. “There is a clear tendency to water down results,” he said. “We are unhappy about this because its comes from countries which profess to be champions of more QMV.”

Lund’s comments reflect a growing frustration with Paris and Berlin, amid fears that unless they show more willingness to give up national vetoes unilaterally, the Nice agreement might not be ambitious enough to prevent decision-making gridlock when the EU takes in up to 13 new members.

Diplomats say France’s position is key to the deal. As current holder of the Union presi-dency, it could take the lead in abandoning the right to block decisions unilaterally. “If you want Spain, the UK and Germany to move, the French have to give ground on their key issues of national interest,” said one.

Negotiators working on the treaty say there will be a tremendous push for a breakthrough at a two-day meeting of foreign ministers which begins on Sunday (3 December). However, French diplomats insist Paris is not prepared to extend QMV to justice and home affairs issues and Article 133, which deals with trade policy, unless other leaders make concessions. “The sentiment in Paris is ‘why move on 133 if the UK does not move on tax?'” said one.

Officials believe there is no chance of abolishing national vetoes on tax because of opposition from the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg. But negotiators point to signs that EU leaders could agree to extend QMV to trade policy decisions involving services, intellectual property and investments.

Several member states including Germany, the UK, Sweden and Finland argue that unless the Union moves to majority voting on these issues, it will be handicapped in trade negotiations because any deal could be vetoed by just one member state. But France,

Greece and Denmark are opposed to extending QMV to these areas. Diplomats say a paper drawn up by Finland offers hope of compromise. Under the plan, majority voting would only be used for decisions on whether to approve trade deals and would not apply to internal EU legislation.

Schröder and Chirac are also coming under pressure from Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands to relinquish their vetoes on asylum and immigration rules.

Paris and Berlin argue that they cannot give way on these issues because of internal constitutional problems. But diplomats say a deal could be reached in Nice which would extend QMV to these rules in 2004.